Chennai

Yesterday was definetly a great introduction to our time in India. Driving through the city, honking our way through crowds of people, motorbikes and auto-rickshaws was crazy. So many things to see, it was hard to take it all in, turning to try and capture the beautiful colors and sights in our massive cameras, as we flew by. It's hard to even notice we're driving on the opposite side of the road here, as there hardly seem to be proper sides. Basic rule is, whatever is smaller gets out of the way of what is bigger. So we were often swerving to the side of the street for buses and garbage trucks, while honking aggresively at pedestrians, motorbikes, bikes and auto-rickshaws.
We drove to the outskirts of town, where bustling city scenes gave way to fields, small grass houses and goats. We crossed bridges and saw the ocean. Usha says the houses of grass were made by survivors of the tsunami. Their friends who own the beautiful beach house were there when the massive black wall of water came. They escaped to the top floor of their home as the huge wave filled everything with sand, and washed away the walls and small buildings around them. The government gave no money to rebuild homes as there was nothing about tsunami's in the natural disaster insurance.
Walking through Chennai at night was definetly one of my favorite things so far. So many colors and sounds and smells. The smell of fresh fruit, incense and flowers all around. The jasmine in girls hair, and being sold on the street was beautiful. There were many stands with fresh vegetables and fruit, some we had never even seen before.
We stopped into a peace temple, relatively new temple. Inside there were people meditating and a huge Om sign at the head of the temple. Outside a man served cubes of sugar into our hands. We have also seen many beautiful mosques here, standing above the other buildings. People sit outside during the month of Ramadan, for charity.
There is a Hindu festival next week, so the streets were filled with vendors selling dolls of different gods. They were very colorful, and Usha stopped to explain the meanings and names of many of them.
The restaraunt we ate at was a fun experience, with delicious sauces served on banana leaves with a giant crepe like bread filled with vegetables and potatoes. Usha was telling us about the different batter she uses. She grinds up lentils and rice sometimes, like what we had for breakfast. I love learning about the different foods here, and the preparation. She was telling us that it's better to take more time to prepare, if it then makes the food better. True, true. Her kitchen is very nice with two stoves that plug in, carefully organized metal plates, cups and other dishes and a sink beneath a window looking out to coconut trees. I like it a lot. She prepares so much delicious food there. We have south Indian coffee in the morning and sometimes tea when we go out. Had some coffee last night, as the jetlag was setting in. We're still mastering eating with only our hands, but it's fun having closer relationship with the food.
This morning we had a very healthy breakfast with idly, white round food made of rice and lentils dipped in spices with sesame oil. The spices had chili powder and other things and then a dish with white radish. We also had my favorite, the sweet,south indian coffee.
Outside the window we saw a squirrel. Looks kind of like a big chipmunk hanging on the coconut tree. Usha leaves food for them and the Indian crows on her balcony. The Indian crows have a kind of grey head and different faces than crows in America. Indian crows won't eat normal rice, so Usha adds spices and vegetables. There were a lot of them at the beach yesterday.
I loved going to the beach, collecting shells and seeing the huge waves. Down the beach some there were fisherman drying fish beneath tents. The breeze there was really nice, and refreshing break from the hot city. Definetely a good time all around.
Tonight we fly to Madurai. :)

Peace